The RB3011 is almost 10 years old

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

If the stated longevity
MTBF Approximately 200'000 hours at 25C

is approximately correct, now it should be at roughly half of its life, as 10 x 24 x 365 = 87'600.

From test results, the 512 bytes packet with 25 filter rules is 452.6 Mbps, and the bridging is 1'667.3 Mbps.

These are - more or less - the performances of a hex refresh (2024) or a hex s (2025), respectively 498.1 and 1'593.5 and noticeably better than those of a L009, respectively 323.6 and 1'352.09.

Assuming that PoE type/voltage is irrelevant and that size (the RB3011 is a standard 1U 19" rack, whilst the other devices are much smaller) is not a problem, could it be (still) a good device?

Any of the mentioned devices should be just fine for ISP connections like 200/100, 300/100 or similar, up to 500/500.

It seems to me that they all are underpowered for (still say) a 1000/500 or 1000/1000, so people (lucky bastards :wink: ) that were reached by Gb service are changing their RB3011's for more powerful devices, and I have seen recently quite a few of them offered on e-bay for a reasonable amount, in the 65-75 € range.

Can we make a comparison table like :

Data RB3011 Hex S (2025) L009
Exact model RB3011UiAS-RM E60iUGS L009UiGS-RM
Architecture ARM 32bit ARM 32bit ARM 32bit
CPU nominal frequency 1.4 GHz 950 MHz 800 MHz
Cores/Threads 2/2 2/2 2/2
Size of RAM 1 GB 512 MB 512 MB
Storage size 128 MB 128 MB 128 MB
SFP 1 1 (up to 2,5Gb) 1 (up to 2,5Gb)
Ethernet 10/100/1000 10 5 8
Serial (RJ45) 1 0 0
USB 3.0 1 1 1
Beeper Yes No No
Display Yes No No
Street price 65-75 € (Used) € 55 (new) € 100 (new)
P&P 10 € 10 € 10 €

and conclude that getting one of these used devices (even if they have possibly a shorter residual life) when you have a ISP connection up to 500/500[1] is not at all a bad deal?

Any known, common issues in your experience with RB3011 worth a mention?

[1] Only as an anecdotal data point, I am on a (in theory) 200/100 that - due to distance from cabinet - should actually work at 30/15 or so but that usually is more like 21/10, and for the foreseeable future (if we are lucky) we could probably get at the most a "real" 200/100

2

Definitely so.

No real experience but I do know it has TWO switch chips which may (or may not) pose additional "challenges" for some configurations.
Especially if you want to have all 10 ports on the same bridge, communication from SW1 to SW2 will happen via CPU which may (or may not) be a limiting factor.

For some the fact it has a beeper, also makes it more valuable then the alternatives you list :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

3

And also, that those switch chips (Atheros8337) cannot do L2 hardware offload with Bridge VLAN Filtering. To keep hardware offload VLAN must be configured with /interface ethernet switch.

4

I am asking because there are contrasting reports about it being good with v6 but slow with v7, cannot say if it depends on setups or on early versions of 7, see:
RB3011 - still a good choice?

5

This is not what MTBF is for. That value roughly reflects the mean time before one of it's components will degrade according to part supplier and then applied to some crazy complex calculation. In simple terms, a chip could fall apart etc. It says nothing about performance, support, software or anything like that. That value is purely for government contract tables and should not be used for "real life" purposes.

6

Sure, noone expects to get those info from a number, but otherwise it is in the ballpark of expected "life" of the device.

Or does Mikrotik use a different definition when compared to how it is explained here?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_time_between_failures

7

I already explained what it is, and that wiki article says the same. It is a synthetic number that is not from tests. It is meaningless for real life. It is based on formulas, not tests.

8

Yep, and I am not saying that the MTBF has a direct correspondence to life expectancy of a device, though approximately there is an indirect one, particularly when the MTBF is very large.

I would say that the RB3011 is well past the infant mortality stage, and (of course it may depend on manufacture date) it has starting now some 3-5 years of residual life.

9

For a single device MTBF is meaningless. But if you have lots of devices and track how long it takes each one to fail, the average of these times will be somewhere around the MTBF.

10

Yep.

Let's say that I have 1.000 devices.
They all have 200.000 hours of MTBF.
They were all powered for the first time on 26 May 2016 at 00:00.
So yesterday night they were working for roughly 87.648 hours.
They were constantly on/powered and kept at all times in a conditioned room at 25° C.

  1. How many have died in their first 15.000 hours? (or before 31/12/2017)?
  2. How many of them have died till now?
  3. How many will die in the next 40.300 hours? (or before 31/12/2030)?
  4. How many will die in the following 72.052 hours? (or before 20/03/2039)?
  5. How many survivors will still be there after that date?

I don't know, as I did not count the failures :astonished_face: and I have no way to know the future :woozy_face:, but I can make wild guesses.

  1. 5%
  2. 10%
  3. 15%
  4. 30%
  5. 40%
11

Well, mine didn't last 10 years since it started having issues very similar to this: RB3011 really broken? . I suspect the SPI flash chip is toast. Hopefully the L009, Hex S 2025, and all other devices will last longer than that one did.

12

Short answer is it should be fine for simple home use. I have one at a site handling traffic for just under a dozen homes, and it does fine.

13

I had 2 of those in production, and indeed for most customer connections they are still better than just "good enough".

One of those is now happily running at one of my colleagues's home, along with a 2011 still in service.

It just works.

(but you can also make great deals with 4011 nowadays, and these are significantly more powerful).

14

:sweat_smile:

An RB2011UAS was my first RB, and it just keeps on running—whether with DSL, VDSL, or fiber. I would have had to replace a FRITZ!Box at least three times by now.

I will never understand why almost everyone in Germany has a FRITZ!Box. :face_with_spiral_eyes:

15

They were very common in the DSL era. People remember the brand. You buy again if the product satisfied.

16

Do they all depend on devices on the fritz or just remeber "Der Alte Fritz"?

:slight_smile:

17

Satisfied with a router that has only 5 years of firmware support? :sweat_smile:

18

I had TP-Link devices that never received a single update during the entire time I owned them. So this fact is not a buy argument it seems.

19

5y of guaranteed FW updates is actually the best the industry has to offer.

Cisco and Mikrotik also guarantee "only" 5y of updates after the date of purchase (which means 5y between End Of Sale and End Of Life).

The fact that MT supports most devices much longer is an additional treat, but it has to be considered as a bonus.

20

People in germany love fritz!box routers because of 3 reasons:

  • Cheap (With some DSL providers you used to get them for free!)
  • "Advanced" but still easy configuration (compared to other ISP Routers)

And most obvious of all:

  • Stable :smiley:

Theres been a few MSPs that supply remote locations with a fritzbox cause "works well enough"

P.s. this isnt true!
The 7490 got almost 13 years of updates!

But dont get me wrong the new ones are really awful. Especially for the customer who thinks "well lets go mesh wifi"